This year, I’ve dedicated myself to catching up on the work of Stephen King. His books have always been a bit of a blind spot for me, beginning when I was a kid and thought reading for pleasure was a laughable concept. As I got older, King was so ingrained in horror pop culture that I was never curious enough to try his work beyond a couple of false starts with The Stand (it’s so looooong). Recently, however, as I’ve finally become aware of the large chasm between experiencing art third hand and immersing myself in it, I’ve made it a point to start looping back around with heavy hitters like King. Of course, reading some of his classics like Carrie and Pet Sematary bring on the urge to visit the film adaptations since I haven’t seen Pet Sematary in years, and somehow, I’ve never seen Carrie at all.
- 5/30/2018
- by Bryan Christopher
- DailyDead
The Cooperbergs of Montreal -- an irreverent Jewish clan facing a major crisis -- are an encyclopedia of familial woes led by a hideously critical and intolerant matron played with gusto by Ellen Burstyn.
Overacting and endless, stage-bound group angst is the norm in acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Shimon Dotan's scabrous comedy that closed the 10th Nortel Palm Springs International Film Festival on Sunday to decidedly mixed reception. The English-language production also features Amanda Plummer, Mary McDonnell and Genevieve Bujold, but its chances for significant theatrical distribution are slim.
Written by Montreal-born playwright Oren Safdie, "You Can Thank Me Later" is claustrophobically set in a hospital room where the family waits for the outcome of a man undergoing serious surgery. Dotan tries to break up the goings-on with black-and-white cutaways to the various siblings and their families talking frankly with presumably several therapists. There's also lots of frantic, spontaneous sex in bathrooms and cars.
The humor runs the gambit from hoary characterizations -- the artist whose paintings are incomprehensible, the Don Juan who scores easily but also gets caught regularly, the controlling mother who plays favorites -- to ineffective running gags like the broken hospital TV set that only shows documentaries about World War II and the Holocaust.
Ultimately turning serious but never fully engaging as an ensemble hate-in to begin with, "You Can Thank Me Later" is no "Happiness" or "Celebration". Wacky-tacky farce one minute and static bitchfest the next, there's no reward for watching the talented cast struggle with dubious material that is so indifferently mounted. The film could benefit from a new score and the cutting of at least 10 minutes.
Plummer as the lone daughter in the family plays yet another dizzy scaredy-cat, while McDonnell as the separated wife and secret lover of second son Eli (Ted Levine) has no particularly memorable moments. Levine ("The Silence of the Lambs") stands out because his relatively calm and rational character is the most appealing, while Mark Blum struggles to get laughs as the successful, oversexed eldest son.
Burstyn sinks her chops into the role of blitzing mother Cooperberg, but her stagey performance combined with Amnon Solomon's blase cinematography does not make for an endearingly wicked character. She's too much in our faces and in the faces of the messed-up brood of wimps she terrorizes.
Macha Grenon shows some spunk as the righteously vicious wife of Blum's smug opportunist, while Bujold's Mystery Woman is a sketchy enigma who figures in the bizarre wrap-up -- which includes vital information about Plummer's character that's inexplicably withheld, completing one's befuddlement and frustration with this misconceived project.
YOU CAN THANK ME LATER
Danehip Entertainment
A Dotan-Anbar/Cinequest Films production
Director: Shimon Dotan
Producers: Shimon Dotan, Netaya Anbar
Screenwriter: Oren Safdie
Director of photography: Amnon Salomon
Production designer: Michael Devine
Editor: Netaya Anbar
Costume designer: Renee April
Color/stereo
Cast:
Shirley: Ellen Burstyn
Susan: Amanda Plummer
Diane: Mary McDonnell
Eli: Ted Levine
Edward: Mark Blum
Linda: Macha Grenon
Joelle: Genevieve Bujold
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Overacting and endless, stage-bound group angst is the norm in acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Shimon Dotan's scabrous comedy that closed the 10th Nortel Palm Springs International Film Festival on Sunday to decidedly mixed reception. The English-language production also features Amanda Plummer, Mary McDonnell and Genevieve Bujold, but its chances for significant theatrical distribution are slim.
Written by Montreal-born playwright Oren Safdie, "You Can Thank Me Later" is claustrophobically set in a hospital room where the family waits for the outcome of a man undergoing serious surgery. Dotan tries to break up the goings-on with black-and-white cutaways to the various siblings and their families talking frankly with presumably several therapists. There's also lots of frantic, spontaneous sex in bathrooms and cars.
The humor runs the gambit from hoary characterizations -- the artist whose paintings are incomprehensible, the Don Juan who scores easily but also gets caught regularly, the controlling mother who plays favorites -- to ineffective running gags like the broken hospital TV set that only shows documentaries about World War II and the Holocaust.
Ultimately turning serious but never fully engaging as an ensemble hate-in to begin with, "You Can Thank Me Later" is no "Happiness" or "Celebration". Wacky-tacky farce one minute and static bitchfest the next, there's no reward for watching the talented cast struggle with dubious material that is so indifferently mounted. The film could benefit from a new score and the cutting of at least 10 minutes.
Plummer as the lone daughter in the family plays yet another dizzy scaredy-cat, while McDonnell as the separated wife and secret lover of second son Eli (Ted Levine) has no particularly memorable moments. Levine ("The Silence of the Lambs") stands out because his relatively calm and rational character is the most appealing, while Mark Blum struggles to get laughs as the successful, oversexed eldest son.
Burstyn sinks her chops into the role of blitzing mother Cooperberg, but her stagey performance combined with Amnon Solomon's blase cinematography does not make for an endearingly wicked character. She's too much in our faces and in the faces of the messed-up brood of wimps she terrorizes.
Macha Grenon shows some spunk as the righteously vicious wife of Blum's smug opportunist, while Bujold's Mystery Woman is a sketchy enigma who figures in the bizarre wrap-up -- which includes vital information about Plummer's character that's inexplicably withheld, completing one's befuddlement and frustration with this misconceived project.
YOU CAN THANK ME LATER
Danehip Entertainment
A Dotan-Anbar/Cinequest Films production
Director: Shimon Dotan
Producers: Shimon Dotan, Netaya Anbar
Screenwriter: Oren Safdie
Director of photography: Amnon Salomon
Production designer: Michael Devine
Editor: Netaya Anbar
Costume designer: Renee April
Color/stereo
Cast:
Shirley: Ellen Burstyn
Susan: Amanda Plummer
Diane: Mary McDonnell
Eli: Ted Levine
Edward: Mark Blum
Linda: Macha Grenon
Joelle: Genevieve Bujold
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/21/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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